Bethlehem Mayor John Callahan met with U.S. Rep. Allyson Schwartz in Washington this week about a possible run for the U.S. House, a bid national Democrats have been pushing for years in an effort to knock off Republican incumbent Charlie Dent.

But if the party hoped to hear a different response from Callahan, it appears that it wasn’t given.

Over sodas at the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee headquarters on Tuesday, Callahan said he told Schwartz, D-13th District, that he’s not prepared to leave his job as mayor.

“It is very flattering to be asked, but at this point in time it is just not something I'm interested in,” Callahan said in a telephone interview Thursday.

Callahan, who is up for reelection this year, said he was in Washington for a National League of Cities conference — Callahan is president of the Pennsylvania League of Cities and Municipalities — and Schwartz asked to meet with him. It is common for House members to meet with potential challengers of the same state on behalf of the DCCC.

It wasn’t the first time national Democrats have come calling. The mayor has spoken with the committee in at least two other cycles about running.

“I've been down there before. I've been asked before. Until I decide where my head is at ... I don’t want to go down that path again,” he said. He said now is a “dynamic period of time in [Bethlehem’s] history.”“I feel obligated to see much of what we have ongoing through to its completion,” he said.

The rejection is an early blow to Democrats’ chances of taking the seat from Dent in 2010. Callahan is regarded as among the party’s top prospects for higher office.

Dent, a three-term member, won reelection in a landslide last year against Sam Bennett even as voters in the district backed Democrat Barack Obama over Republican John McCain in the presidential race.